Too Cold For Angels To Fly
by LilacNightmare
Summary: Rated M  for later chapters; Pearl Brody visits the Hessian's grave religiously while avoiding nightmare conditions at home.
1. Chapter 1

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing and make no money from this. Anything related to the Sleepy Hollow movie belongs to them and the only thing mine is my original character Pearl. I edited this as best as I could but if I did not catch all of the errors I am sorry. Any ideas that offend anyone I am also sorry for; this story is and is meant to be pure fiction.

Pearl watched her breath leave her mouth as she stepped into the harsh winter. Crisp snowflakes engulfed her as she struggled to hurry from home. Her footprints fell deep in the collecting snow as she ran to a very familiar place.

Several minutes passed before she finally reached her hide away. She hoped her adopted parents had not realized where she had gone yet; but even if they did no one ever dared to follow her into the woods.

Pearl fell to her knees when she had arrived to the twisted tree in front of her. The woods were quiet and yet the snow fell. Her orange-red hair was the only color to stand out among the dark landscape.

She bow her head for a moment then lifted her eyes and turned to the rusted sword in the ground before her.

"I am here again." She said to the empty woods.

Nothing but silence returned to her as she stared at the grave marker.

"I think... I think something is going to happen. My parents- they... they are acting strange again."

She brushed away a bit of snow on the ground and sat down. Her small hand reached for the sword as she rubbed it gently.

"I wish you could be here with me. After these two years I still wish I knew your face and felt your comfort. I am sure you were a brave warrior. I am sure you would have taken very good care of me."

Pearl looked to the sky as her tears fell. For two years now she had walked to this grave nearly everyday after first discovering it. She talked to the soul buried each time she visited. She had even discretely asked around town about the grave, but all she found out was that some solider had been left here a long time ago; no one would talk about him further. In her heart she could not understand why someone would just be abandoned like this; no matter what they did in life.

Tears now streamed harder as she reflected on the fact her only friend was whomever was left in the grave next to her. Somehow she felt close to this person though; he had gotten her through a lot. He was the only one she had to talk to.

Pearl dried her tears and looked down at the sword. She bent down and lovingly kissed the top of the handle and stood up. As she turned her back and ran back home she never noticed the sword slightly aglow with energy.

Somewhere in the dark recesses of the Hessian's tomb a bit of him stirred. He was lost in some deep other worldly place; inside his tree and through a portal to a different world. He sat next to his horse in the ink black room. As he gently stroked Daredevil's head. He felt as he was floating in his own personal hell.

Klaus opened his eyes to the blackness as he felt his dead heart beat hard. Every time the young girl came to talk to him he awoke from his torment and felt her spirit. She was so strong and it reminded him of the days when he was alive.

He knew her name; in fact he was fairly sure he knew everything about her. She told him everything about herself and he remembered it all. He savored it all as well, from the very day she was drawn to his resting place in the forest, to the day she first told him her name, and the kiss she gave his sword a few moments ago.

Klaus considered what she had told him about her adopted parents acting strange again. He truly worried about the girl. Pearl was only sixteen years old and he meant to protect her from the very day she stepped foot on his grave but he was bound to this place for now.

He slowly closed his eyes and drifted back off into his sleep like state as he waited until she visited him again.


	2. Chapter 2

**A small installment as I write the longer one...**

The following day was just as brutally cold out. Pearl peered out her bedroom window as she thought about her buried friend in the woods. She fingered her necklace as usual as she thought about how lonely he had to be in the woods.

Pearl stopped messing with her necklace, the only thing she had left from her real parents, and laughed at herself. The person there was dead. He had been dead for years. Why would he be lonely?

Still her heart ached for him.

As Pearl contemplated this she heard footsteps on the stairs that were heading for her room. Her heart began to race as she wondered what her adopted parents wanted now. As the door opened slowly to her room she held down her panic.

"Pearl we need to speak with you." Her adoptive father announced.

The stocky built man entered the room as his smaller shorter wife followed behind him. Pearl locked eyes with his cold green ones as she waited for him to speak.

"I am sure you remember Alabaster who lives down the road? Well he has recently approached me and asked for your hand in marriage. I told him you would be happy to marry him and that we could begin arranging everything within a few days."  
>"But I have no desire to marry him! I have only seen him twice in passing! I don't-"<p>

A swift hand clashed into Pearl's tender cheek and cut her off mid sentence.

"You will marry him and you will not argue further about it!" Her adoptive father boomed as he and his wife left the room.

Pearl stood there in disbelief for several moments before scurrying to her window. She flung it open and took the familiar route down the nearby tree and then found herself sprinting to the woods.


	3. Chapter 3

Pearl arrived shortly at the familiar burial place below the wicked tree. She fell to her knees and looked onward to the withered sword.

"So my adoptive parents decided I am to marry. I am to marry a man I do not even know." She began.

–

Klaus realized the young girl's presence at once. He was fine tuned to the feeling of her when she came to visit him and when he heard the words she spoke his anger rose.

–

"The things is, and well I know it is silly, but I have decided that I will tell them I have found another. I don't know your name but I will say that I already promised to marry a solider I have been seeing secretly." Pearl sighed and shook her head. "It is silly because it will never work. In any case my dear one, I hear by announce you to be my chosen mate and that to you alone my soul belongs too."

Pearl quickly took off her necklace and wrapped it around the hilt of the rusted sword. She felt as though she were being dramatic but she meant every word.

"I belong to you now... whoever you were." She stood up and left for fear her parents would find her missing soon.

Pearl did not notice the sword behind her as it began to steam from the ground heating up around it.

–

Klaus was in shock but he was mostly elated. He now had the power to leave this place that he was bound to sine she bowed her soul to his. It was the happiest he had ever remembered feeling. Klaus could now return to the world of the living and protect the girl he had drawn so close too. He was truly worried, though, of the possible rejection from her. He would still be nightmarish undead creature from before but maybe if she could love him he could learn to love himself.

–

Pearl felt a prickling sensation on her neck. She had arrived home and climbed up the tree to her room. Outside the wind had picked up and the clouds were beginning to build in the east. She felt uneasy as though something were with her. She watched out the window as she waited for night to fall.


	4. Chapter 4

The thunderstorm that suddenly appeared was unexpected for Rose. Hadn't it just been snowing the other day? She wondered.

–

The nightmarish tree gaped open as the demon rider and his black horse escaped. Klaus gripped the necklace from the young girl tightly as he galloped into the growing darkness of the woods.

–

Pearl gulped down her fear as she continued gazing out the window. Something within her drove her to continue looking; a sixth sense of sorts.

It was then she saw the terrible creature halt to a stop on his horse and look directly up at the window she peered down from. He hid along the backyard treeline that entered into the woods but she could see him clearly. The air vibrated with energy and anticipation as she looked into his ice blue eyes.

The urge was great to go to the impossibly alive man below her bedroom window.

This has to be him. She thought to herself. She just_ knew. _

"Come to me my sweet." Klaus muttered under his breath as he gazed at the lovely girl above him. There could be nothing in this world with more beauty than her he thought.

Pearl was stuck at a cross roads. How she wanted to go to him but the fear in her remained. He was supposed to be dead after all she reasoned.

"But isn't this what I have wanted for so long?" She wondered aloud to her empty room.

Action engulfed her as she decided to open her window. Once outside she turned around and began climbing out to the tree and down. Suddenly a gust of wind picked up and she felt herself falling... then a smell of forest and leather surrounded her as he dark hero caught her.

"You must be careful my love." He told her in a thick accent.

Pearl looked up at him and noted immediately his sharpened teeth. She shuddered but at the same time felt excited; here he was in the flesh and just for her.

Klaus helped her sit up right and rode hard into the forest with her as the storm settled in for the night.


	5. Chapter 5

Same warnings / rating as rest of the story.

I am sorry for the wait; my laptop was in repair. Thank you reviewers and readers! I appreciate it!

Also I know the Horseman is named Klaus in the other story. I just like that name for him. Well at least for these two stories… ;] The strong winds wiped around them as they sped into the trees. Nothing prepared Pearl for the way the tree opened, as if by magic, and took them in. It shook her up visibly. Below the dead tree was a tangle of roots and then finally they made their way into a clearing. The young girl could not wrap her mind around this save for realizing they must be in another realm.

Klaus helped her off of the horse and guided her to a withered wooden door ahead of them. As they entered Pearl looked behind her to see the mighty horse had disappeared altogether.

The inside of the room was comfortable enough but sparse. Only the basic living essentials abound. Pearl did not know it, but Klaus had created this at the last minute for her. He did not want her seeing the dark abyss he was used to on a regular basis that abound this place.

Oddly enough Pearl could still hear the storm that raged outside as she sat down on a crooked chair. She admired the man in front of her and wondered about him. She had so many questions to ask she completely forgot about his fearful appearance.

Klaus went to her and kneeled on his knees so that he was eye level with the sitting girl.

"I have heard you speak to me for so long. I am Klaus." He struggled to find the right English words as he introduced himself.

"I am Pearl." The young girl choked.

"I know my sweet. I also know you have given yourself to me and without knowing you bound your soul to me. That is why you are here now." He took her hand gently and kissed the top of it. Pearl shuddered and felt as if she were glued to the chair as the words sunk in.

"Our souls are really bound?"

"Ja."

Pearl blinked and looked at him curiously. She was surprised at not feeling any bit awkward around this undead man. Perhaps it was because she had told him her life story nearly everyday for years?

"Because of this, you helped me escape my… torment. You gave me my freedom I so desperately craved." Klaus stood up and pulled Pearl to her feet. "For this I thank you." Pearl Felt a rush of emotions as she tried to figure out what was happening to her. She felt relieved that he had come for her, scared of his appearance at times, happy that he was real, and terrified that all of this was a dream.

"You freed me too in a way. I found myself starting to doubt my sanity that I was talking to your grave-" Pearl suddenly rushed. Klaus stopped her. "My sweet we do not have long. You can not stay in this realm too long as you are not fully mine yet."

"What do you mean?" The girl frowned and pulled the hand away from him that he had still been holding.

"You are from the land of the living and because our souls are not one yet you can not stay here long."

"Well how do we make our souls one then?" The girl questioned.

"We erm how do you say in your language… couple? Yes, to become one."

Pearl blushed. She was not ready for this and taken off guard.

"I um, I can't well… not yet. I mean. I don't want to go home either. I… I-" "Shush." The undead German pulled her gently to him.

"You have too. This can not be done until a full moon and you must part ways with your own world. You must say your goodbyes therefore voicing your decision to leave your old life. You will have to see them regardless. I will still be able to watch over you though. You do not have any other choice." Pearl gave him a confused look as he gazed down into her eyes. She was bound to this man she did not know in person.. Sure she felt like she knew him well because of her one sided conversations, but that was it. And on top of that she was expected to face her adoptive parents once more. "You have to be strong. Here…" Klaus placed a small medal he had won from a battle long ago.

Pearl look down and smiled softly. It met a lot to her that he would give her something like this. He watched her slip the necklace she had placed on his sword the other day around his neck. He tucked it behind his leather armor and watched her carefully.

"You have to be strong for the both of us now." He reminded her as she trembled in his presence. "Okay… Klaus." It felt good to finally know his name and voice it. The Horseman took her hand once more and led her out of the tree. The storm had died down and only a slight rain fell.

"I will walk you home."

Pearl was glad they had a while to spend together as he guided her through the dimly lit trees. Without him she would have surly been lost in all of the twists and turns leading to her home.

The edge of the forest by her house came too soon as he helped her back up the tree. She needed his odd comfort and knowing the full moon was only a couple days aways he needed all the time she could with him. Pearl watched out of the window as her Horseman rode off in the lightening and thunder.

"I hope she does not change her mind." Klaus thought as he returned home. Meanwhile, over a mile away, doubt began to creep into the young girls mind.


End file.
